Basketball in Africa

Nigeria ended their three-match winless run with an emphatic 97-77 win over fellow strugglers Puerto Rico at the FIBA U19 World Championship on Monday.

Emmanuel Negedu led the charge, claiming a 23-point haul and 8 rebounds with one block, while Ibrahim Adamu Yusuf added a further 22 points and 10 rebounds for a double double, shooting guard Nosa Omorogbe bagged 17 while Solomon Alabi earned a double double of 14 points, 15 rebounds and an impressive 6 block shots jus as point guard Michael Ohiero had 7 assists.

Point guard Josue Soto was the focal point of Puerto Rico's effort, but ultimately his 19 points could not stop his side slipping to a defeat that looked likely from the first buzzer.

By the first quarter the African champion had opened up a commanding 23-18 lead, and they stretched that to 43-36 by the halfway stage.

Any second-half revival was immediately made to look unlikely when Nigeria took the third quarter 25-17 to lead 68-53 overall.

They went on to edge the fourth 29-24 to move further clear and clinch their best result of the tournament to date.

Puerto Rico, on the other hand, remain fruitless from their four games.

Nigeria will battle Lebanon Tuesday for placement 13-14 while Mali and Puerto Rico will slug it for the last classification game.

Other Result of Games played Monday:

Lebanon 76-56 Mali
Nigeria 97-77 Puerto Rico
Australia 135-79 Korea
Spain 83-69 Canada
Serbia 87-75 Brazil
Argentina 68-59 Turkey

USA 90-81 Lithuania
France 106-57 China

by http://nigeriasports.com/